Terror In Tokyo: The Overview

By Nicholas D. Kristof

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Tokyo, Tuesday, March 21 -- A 300-member task force interrogated
witnesses today and searched for clues as the Government appealed for
public cooperation to prevent a repeat of the nerve gas attack by
terrorists on the Tokyo subway system.

Eight people died and more than 4,700 others were treated in hospitals
for that attack, which came at the peak of the Monday morning rush hour in
one of the busiest commuter systems in the world.

The police appear concerned that the assault may not be the last, and
they have stepped up security at train stations and airports around the
country and are inspecting subway trash cans and platforms for suspicious
objects.

No group has taken responsibility, and the police gave no indication
today that they had any important developments in the case.

The Tokyo Shimbun, a daily newspaper, reported today that the police
were treating as a suspect a man who was hospitalized for serious nerve
gas poisoning. The police refused to confirm or deny the report, which did
not describe the man or say why he was a suspect.

The carefully planned attack involved the nearly simultaneous release
of at least five packages that emitted poison gas on three different
subway lines.

Subway entrances soon looked like battlefields, as injured commuters
lay gasping on the ground, some of them with blood gushing from the nose
or mouth. Army troops from a chemical warfare unit rushed to the scene
with special vehicles to clear the air, and men in gas masks and clothes
resembling space suits probed for clues.

Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama called an emergency meeting of Cabinet
ministers after the attack, and the Transportation Ministry ordered the
nation's airports, railroads and ports to be on alert against any further
terrorism.

'I've ordered a thorough investigation to make sure that this doesn't
happen again,' Mr. Murayama said. 'I'm sure everyone will do his job, but
I'd like to ask all the Japanese people to cooperate by reporting any
suspicious objects at public meetings or in trains or buses.'

The subway disaster is regarded here as not only an incident of mass
murder but also an assault on the nation's self-confidence.

'This is a bold challenge to the nation's social stability,' the
Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest-circulation newspaper, declared in an
editorial today. The newspaper also called on the Government to conduct an
urgent review of rules about distribution of chemicals, to prevent people
from making nerve gas in their own laboratories.

Air samples determined that the gas was sarin, a highly toxic and
volatile form of nerve gas developed by Nazi scientists in Germany in the
1930's. Sarin is said to be 500 times more toxic than cyanide gas, which
is used to execute people in gas chambers in American penitentiaries.

Sarin is very complex and dangerous to make, but it can be produced by
a trained chemist with chemicals that are available publicly. One problem
for a terrorist is how to transport it without being injured. To reduce
the risk, those involved in Monday's assault apparently transported it in
a liquid solution form, tightly covered.

The police said that the gas came from packages -- which were made to
look like lunch boxes or bottled drinks -- that had been left in the
subway cars or stations. The packages then leaked a thick liquid on the
floor, and people in the cars suddenly began to feel dizzy and lose their
eyesight.

As the trains arrived in stations and opened their doors, passengers
staggered out and collapsed on the platforms. Some of the injured were
police officers and subway workers who tried to clean up the spills.

If the sarin had been in pure gas form, it would have been much more
deadly -- but also much more difficult to transport safely. In any case,
experts said that a gas like sarin is particularly effective in enclosed
places like subways or tunnels, where it cannot rise and dissipate.

Two Americans, including the wife of an American Embassy employee, were
hospitalized, but the embassy declined to identify them. An embassy
spokesman said that neither American is in serious condition.

More than 800 people remained in hospitals overnight, and about 75 of
them were said to be in serious condition. The Government said victims
would be compensated under a law providing money to crime victims.

There is no indication that there was any foreign involvement in the
gas attack. Instead, speculation focused on the possibility of sabotage by
a religious or political extremist organization.

A religious cult -- Aum Shinri Kyo -- has accused a company of
spreading sarin in its installations in a village in Yamanashi Prefecture.
Traces of sarin have been found in the village, and residents there have
complained of eye and nose irritation.

In 1993, there were charges that a building owned by the cult was
emitting noxious white fumes, but the police were not allowed to enter to
investigate. The cult has been at odds with the authorities, but there is
no indication of any evidence linking it to Monday's attack.

Aum Shinri Kyo said in a statement that it was not involved in the
subway attack, and suggested that the Government itself was responsible.

A similar mysterious incident last year first made sarin a familiar
word in Japan. Seven people in Matsumoto, in central Japan, died and more
than 200 were injured after sarin wafted through a residential
neighborhood during the night.

That incident horrified people all over Japan, but it was never clear
exactly where the gas came from. The police have not arrested anyone or
announced a motive in the attack.

Then on March 5 there was an unexplained incident -- perhaps a practice
for Monday's assault -- in a subway car in the port city of Yokohama,
adjacent to Tokyo. In the Yokohama incident, passengers in a subway car
complained of feeling sick, and 11 were hospitalized, but the authorities
never found what had caused their ailments.

Just last week, the authorities found three abandoned attache cases at
the Kasumigaseki station and noticed that one was emitting steam. They
discovered that the briefcases had been rigged with tanks containing a
liquid, fans, a vent and a battery, but the liquid apparently was not
toxic. It is unclear whether there was a connection with Monday's attack.

The police did release one description of a potential suspect in
Monday's attack. They said that passengers had reported that one of the
packages was left by a 30- to 40-year old man who wore sunglasses and a
white face mask and who got off the train at the Ebisu station. Several
stations later, passengers began to feel the effects of the gas, but it is
not clear how the devices were triggered.

Japan has had relatively few terrorist attacks in recent years, and
Tokyo prides itself on a safe and efficient subway system that carries 5.8
million riders a day. The New York subway system, on the other hand,
carried 3.3 million riders a day in the month of January. In 1990,
leftists took responsibility for setting small bombs on eight trains to
protest the coronation of the new Emperor, but there were no injuries.

Subway traffic was light today and Tokyo seemed subdued, partly because
it is a national holiday celebrating the beginning of spring.

After developing sarin, the Nazis used it experimentally in death camps
during World War II but did not use it against Allied troops. Japanese
troops also developed other poison gases during the war -- and used them
on the battlefield against Chinese forces -- but there is no indication
that they possessed sarin.

Iraq's army is widely believed to have used sarin against Iranian
troops and against Kurdish rebels, but the gas has not generally been used
by terrorists. It is difficult to make and dangerous to handle, and it is
extremely lethal: half a milligram is a fatal dose for an average-sized
person.

Sarin attacks the central nervous system, paralyzing the lungs and thus
causing difficulty with breathing. It sometimes takes time for victims to
feel the full effects.

After the police had finished searching for clues, troops trained in
chemical warfare procedures cleaned up the subway stations and cars. They
wore gas masks and full protective body suits as they scrubbed with
special solutions to neutralize the chemicals.